Round six of NAFTA renegotiation talks continue today as Canada and Mexico claim cautious optimism that a round seven will take place.  This round of talks is scheduled to continue through Monday and end with a much anticipated a joint press conference between Ildefonso Guajardo (Mex), Chrystia Freeland (Can) and U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer.   There were seven rounds initially scheduled.
Canada and Mexico are trying to close less important, and less controversial, trade chapters in an effort to give the illusion of progress and frame a political narrative that lends itself toward continuing to talk; ie. round seven.
However, if there’s no significant progress on the larger issues it’s doubtful Lighthizer will find value in endless words that amount to nothing.
Canada and Mexico have been lobbying U.S. politicians hard to retain their parasitic trade positions.  Additionally, a significant number of Washington DC politicians are willing to take massive bribes from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbyists and support the export of American economic jobs and wealth.   This is another key UniParty indulgence issue.
Big Corporate Agriculture (Big AG), the consortium of massive multinational agriculture companies who hold stakes in the entire continent, are pushing hard to keep their “controlled market” dominance in place, and is attempting to stoke fears using false claims about farms and negative trade impacts to farmers.  Pure nonsense.
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The U.S. Fourth Quarter GDP growth was reported two days ago at 2.6% and that stunned everyone who were expecting a much higher number. All U.S. economic indicators including U.S. Holiday consumer spending, which accounts for around two-thirds of total GDP, were off the charts in the fourth quarter growing +5.5% over the prior holiday.
The total growth in fourth quarter consumer spending was almost four percent (3.8%), that’s the highest rate of consumer spending in well over two years.  Q4 investment in new housing increased 11.6%, business spending on equipment surged 11.4% and outlays on structures edged up 1.4%.
Before the BEA (Bureau of Economic Analysis) announcement, everyone predicted 4th quarter GDP growth would easily be over 3%, and most likely in the 3.5 to 4.0% range.
So what gives.  Why did the Q4 GDP only grow at 2.6% ?

It seems a little funny to be griping about 2.6% growth because, well, that’s really good, Bigly even; so hopefully those within the Commerce Department don’t take this review personally.  But, c’mon, we expected more…  Well, the answer to the question is actually in the first few paragraphs of their release, and later in the deep weeds of the data.  I’ll explain.
First, the part of the announcement to note carefully:

[…] The Bureau emphasized that the fourth-quarter advance estimate released today is based on source data that are incomplete or subject to further revisionby the source agency (see “Source Data for the Advance Estimate” on page 3). The “second” estimate for the fourth quarter, based on more complete data, will be released on February 28, 2018.

The “source data for the advance estimate” is another set of separate analytical disclaimers (pdf here) which informs users there are economic data-sets that contain ‘less than‘ three months of information.  To see what data is missing, and what “assumptions” the BEA  recommends, you to travel to a third level of depth (LINK HERE), and then to the key source data and BEA assumptions (excel spreadsheet here).
Don’t try this at home without a pocket protector and guidebook to the fourth level of Dantes inferno. So let me try to make this easy.
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A billion dollars is a thousand millions.   Today, as a direct result of President Trump’s MAGAnomic tax reform, Federal Express has announced they will invest an additional $3.2 BILLION in employee pay raises, bonuses and pension contributions.
Wow.

(Reuters) – Package delivery company FedEx Corp said on Friday it will spend more than $3.2 billion on wage increases, bonuses, pension funding and capital investment, taking advantage of the U.S. tax overhaul signed into law in December.
The Memphis, Tennessee-based company said it would invest $1.5 billion to significantly expand its hub in Indianapolis over the next seven years and modernize and enlarge its Memphis SuperHub.

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Earlier today, prior to his speech in Davos, Switzerland, President Trump sat down for an interview with Joe Kernen to discuss the America-First economic policy.

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Earlier today President Trump delivered a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. (Video and Transcript below)

[Transcript] 2:02 P.M. – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you, Klaus, very much. It’s a privilege to be here at this forum where leaders in business, science, art, diplomacy, and world affairs have gathered for many, many years to discuss how we can advance prosperity, security, and peace.
I’m here today to represent the interests of the American people and to affirm America’s friendship and partnership in building a better world.
Like all nations represented at this great forum, America hopes for a future in which everyone can prosper, and every child can grow up free from violence, poverty, and fear.
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The entire economic world is unilaterally focused on President Trump and the U.S. delegation in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum. CTH has stated for several years that MAGAnomics, the U.S. economic outlook, would be the primary generational change evident from a successful election of Donald Trump. What’s happening at Davos is simply visible confirmation therein.

Boil all international and geopolitical issues down to their common denominator and everything, E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G., every issue, every discussion, every person, every policy, every position, everything -all of it- circles around economics. Nothing matters except the underlying economics of every single issue. Power or weakness, famine or war, peace or conflict, master or servant, culture or crisis, growth or collapse, the entirety of everything -including the foundation of freedom- centers around the economics.
There are trillions at stake.
Yesterday we saw U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross commanding around 80% of panelist discussion, and factually 100% of all questions and attention from the Davos audience. Every single question was for Wilburine.  Team U.S.A. is the epicenter of the economic universe and Secretary Ross was well prepared for the severity of attention.
Today, the same theme continues as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin engages with a similar panel discussion.

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Earlier today President Trump had dinner with European business leaders attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Attendees included:
U.S. Team – President Donald J. Trump, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielson, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn.
European Delegation: Kasper Rorsted, Adidas (Apparel) Germany; Joe Kaeser, Siemens AG (Tech) Germany; Heinrich Hiesinger, Thyssenkrupp AG (Industrials) Germany; Eldar Saetre, Statoil ASA (Energy) Norway; Mark Schneider, Nestle SA (Food and Beverage) Switzerland; Vas Narasimhan, Novartis AG (Pharmaceutical) Switzerland; Mark Tucker, HSBC (Financial Services) UK; Patrick Pouyanne, Total SA (Energy) France; Carols Brito, Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (Food and Beverage) Netherlands; Rajeev Suri, Nokia Corporation (Technology) Finland; Punit Renjen, Deloitte (Consulting) UK; Martian Lundstedt, AB Volvo (Auto) Sweden; Werner Baumann, Bayer AG (Pharmaceutical) Germany; Bill McDermott, SAP SE (Technology) Germany; Ulrich Spiesshofer, ABB Ltd (Manufacturing) Switzerland.

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U.S. President Trump and U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Against the backdrop of increasing discoveries surrounding the U.K. involvement in undermining the candidacy of Donald Trump; and against the left-wing U.K. political forces consistently highlighting criticism of President Trump; the reality is the U.K. is now in a position of economic vulnerability and needs favorable financial outcomes from President Trump.
As such, Prime Minister May is in a tenuous position and hoping the U.S. President will be magnanimous in his forgiveness of the past two years of scheming, ankle-biting and very public criticism. The scale of President Trump’s leverage over Prime Minister May is very visible in their dialogue and body language.

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Right now the U.K. needs American economic help and POTUS Trump. Almost nothing has worked in their economic benefit since they made the conscious decision to take a position of adversarialism. If the U.K. doesn’t knock off the nonsense President Trump will stand aside and watch them suffer. Theresa May knows this is her reality.
T-Rex is enjoying the art of the deal, having flashbacks to corporate life, remembering the power of holding all the leverage while witnessing an apex predator circling his prey. Cohn and McMaster well understand the play…
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U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is attending Round Six of the NAFTA talks in Canada while President Trump, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, and Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin attend the Davos World Economic Forum and sit down for an interview with Maria Bartiromo. (Three Video Segments).

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Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross at the World Economic Forum in Davos (President Trump departs the U.S. tonight to attend). The attendance by Secretary Ross provides an opportunity to further enforce the position of the Trump administration regarding free, fair and reciprocal trade deals.
Believe me, the economic globalist attendees were/are entirely freaking out.  There’s a panel discussion video at the bottom which will highlight the tenuous position of the multinational corporations, banks and the economic interests of the globalists.  Prior to the panel Secretary Ross gave an interview to CNBC. WATCH:

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As mentioned Secretary Ross also outlined how the ‘America First’ economic policy and platform engages with the global community during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum.  Generally the attendees have been historic champions of multinational corporations and multinational financial interests, ie. fans of “economic globalization”.
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